VMware Workstation 5.5

Snapshots in a Process Tree

Another way to use snapshots is shown in the following figure. Here, instead of saving each step of a process in a single long sequence, you are saving a number of sequences, as branches from a single baseline. This strategy is often used in testing software, for example. You can take a snapshot before installing different versions of a program to ensure each different installation begins from an identical baseline.

Snapshots as restore points in a process tree

VMware Workstation supports over 100 snapshots per branch in a process tree.

Relationship Between Snapshots

The relationship between snapshots is like parent to child.

In a linear process, each snapshot has one parent and one child, except for the last snapshot, which has no children.

In a process tree, each snapshot has one parent, but one snapshot may have more than one child. Many snapshots have no children.